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Gary Windass
Gary "Gazzah" Windass is a character in Coronation Street who first appeared in 2008. He is the "hammerhead loan shark" son of Eddie and Anna Windass, older adoptive brother of Faye and father of Jake. Originally a petty criminal, Gary began developing into a more responsible young man who wished to support and provide for his family, although still gets into trouble due to his temper and often carelessness. Gary has often been a fierce rival to David Platt. This rivalry ended up in David assaulting Gaz in the boxing ring in 2018. Other rivals include Pat Phelan and Adam Barlow. In 2019, Gary became more ruthless than ever and is trying to be Weatherfield's answer to The Godfather. He even caused the factory collapse that killed Rana Nazir, and bumped off loan shark Rick Neelan and took over his business. Gary's new job as a "hammerhead loan shark" made him too big for his boots, and began threatening Ryan Connor. Gaz then started a relationship with Maria Connor, causing him and Ali Neeson to become bitter enemies. It seemed that Gary was living plot armour, always brushing off comments about him being a loan shark allegations as simply Ali being jealous of his relationship with Maria. Gary would seemingly get away with his crimes, until he met the absolute mad lad known as Derek Milligan. Derek ensured that all of Gazzah's dodgy dealings as a loan shark would backfire on him that Christmas, when he got a gun and started a massacre on the street, as a result of Loan Shark Gazzah pushing him over the edge. Derek's shooting causes the death of Robert Preston, and also causes David's wife Shona to get shot and later put into a coma. Despite Derek dying after falling from a great height, his death would not be in vain, as it would made residents of the street (such as Izzy) more suspicious of Gary, and eventually caused them to realise that Gary is a loan shark. This caused The Gaz to finally confess that he is a loan shark to a now pregnant Maria, who is deeply disgusted that Gary lied to her about not being a loan shark, when he in fact was one. Despite pleas from The Gaz to forgive him, Maria refused and told him to get out. Biography Backstory Gary Windass was born on the 19th March 1986 to Eddie Windass and Anna Windass. Gary was troublesome in his youth, although this was mainly down to looking up to his uncle Len who was a bad influence on him. His family got a reputation as troublemakers and dangerous. 2008- Gary and his family came into conflict with the Platt family in November 2008 when David Platt and his mother's boyfriend Joe McIntyre fitted them a kitchen but they refused to pay. Gary's parents Anna and Eddie claimed the work was shoddy and not up to standard, which was far from true. David took revenge on them by returning to their residence and destroying the kitchen, but this only caused Gary and Len to retaliate by entering the Platt's residence at Number 8 Coronation Street and destroying their kitchen. The Windass family were evicted from their home and moved into No.10. Anna attempted to make peace with David's mother Gail and to form a truce, but David was having none of it. On Christmas Day Gail invited the family round but they only caused irritation, and Gary started hitting on David's girlfriend Tina. This prompted Joe to lose his cool and angrily threw food at the Windass family and chucked them out, much to the shock of Gail. Gary and David's feud grew more and more out of control. In January 2009 Gary began taunting David after finding out his dark past, resulting in David punching him. Gary beat David to a bloody pulp, and was later arrested and charged for grievous bodily harm. David felt it was the best opportunity to finally get Gary locked away for good and persuaded Tina to claim Gary struck him first, but she stood up in court and admitted David threw the first punch, which then resulted in Gary being released. Gary seemed to turn into a responisbile family man for once when him and girlfriend Izzy Armstrong became parents to Jake Windass in 2013. In late 2013, Gary worked for Owen Armstrong and united with Owen against local builder Pat Phelan who ripped the off. One time during a fight, Gary put Phelan in hospital. Phelan used this to get Gary to do what he wanted or he would go to the police. In the end, Phlean emigrated and left the family in peace, for a while anyway. Gary and Izzy later split and he begun dating Sarah Louise Platt. However Gary's roving eye struck once again when he had a one night stand with Nicola Rubenstein. At the time, Gary did not know she was Pat Phelan's daughter. Gary started to return to his villainous ways again when he menaced Seb Franklin into changing his statement against Anna Windass in court. He evn kidnapped him and Seb complied so was let go. Gary then got rowdy with Sarah's daughter Bethany Platt for lap dancing. Gary then got rowdy with the bouncers, so this earned him a beating. Following Anna's imprisonment, Gary continues with her campaign to bring Phelan to justice for his crimes against them. He teams up with Nicola and Seb, along with Faye's father Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine), to prove that Phelan is responsible for killing their neighbour Luke Britton (Dean Fagan) — after Seb had deduced that Phelan is the killer upon being manipulated by the latter into touching his gun, the weapon that Phelan used to kill Luke, and later finding out that Luke had been shot before dying in a vehicle explosion. Their efforts seem futile at first until Seb later tells Gary that he believes Phelan has hidden the gun at his worksite, which leads the pair to try and uncover it. However, they are surprised to learn that Phelan has actually hidden two bodies at the worksite — which nevertheless exposes the truth about Phelan killing Michael and Luke. It soon transpires that the two bodies were Phelan's business partner Vinny Ashford (Ian Kelsey) and Luke's best-friend Andy Carver (Oliver Farnworth) — both of whom Phelan killed after keeping Andy captive in an abandoned warehouse for nearly the entirety of 2017 and uses the opportunity to exact revenge on Vinny for betraying him at the conclusion of their "Calcutta Street" scam. With Phelan's crimes exposed and presumed dead following a showdown with Jason's mother Eileen (Sue Cleaver), whom he previously married back in January 2017, Gary is granted ownership of the yard and helps Faye collaborate with their friend Daniel Osbourne (Rob Mallard) planning to secure Anna's release from her false imprisonment. During the preparations, Gary is hospitalized after David brutally assaults him during a charity boxing match between them. While Sarah is left outraged at her brother's behaviour, Gary grows concerned for David and is surprised to later find out that he had been raped by his new friend Josh Tucker (Ryan Clayton). In May 2018, Nicola ends up giving birth to her and Gary's child - Zack. However, Gary doesn't show up at the hospital while Nicola is giving birth upon making a discovery - Phelan has resurfaced. He plans to get revenge on Phelan for what he did to his family over the past four years and ends up tracking him from his hiding place in Albergele. Gary then calls his ex-militant associate, Joe Haslam (Chord Melodic), to help with his plans - though Joe initially refuses at first and leaves Gary on his own. However, after Phelan overpowers Gary upon being attacked, Joe returns and knocks Phelan unconscious before he could harm Gary. Together, they bring Phelan back to Weatherfield and hold him captive in the yard - where Sarah returns and discovers the situation just as Joe leaves the area. As Gary attempts to stop Sarah from calling the police whilst ignoring her efforts to talk him out of revenge, Phelan manages to free himself and subdues Gary by hitting him with a chair. Phelan then retrieves his gun, locks Gary and Sarah in the yard, and proceeds to confront Eileen and Nicola so he could get to see Zack. While attempting to escape, Gary and Sarah are released from their captivity by Anna - who herself has been released from prison at the time Phelan was presumed dead. The trio promptly rush off to stop Phelan, who ends up shooting Nicola after she tried to disarm him. As Anna heads down to confront Phelan at the Bistro, where he has instigated, Gary retrieves Zack in his arms whilst Sarah rushes over to Eileen and Seb - who were both knocked unconscious by Phelan during the struggle. Eventually, Anna prevents Phelan from escaping Weatherfield by stabbing him with a knife - though not before the latter ended up shooting the restaurant's co-owner Michelle Connor (Kym Marsh); however, she survives whilst Phelan dies from Anna's stabbing. Following Phelan's death, Anna leaves Weatherfield and Gary manages to make amends with Nicola after she discovers that he was the reason behind Phelan's siege. Nicola eventually leaves Weatherfield with Zack, despite Gary's initial protests. 2019-present: Becoming the next Phelan/Neelan : Gary and Sarah sleep on a lilo at No.8 after being evicted.]] Following Gary's return from visiting Nicola and Zack in Bristol over Christmas, Sarah berated him on the amount that he had spent on presents for his newborn son. In order to make amends, Gary desperately began selling tools from the yard and was able to impress Sarah when he revealed a wad of cash. Gary led his partner to believe that he was on top of the rent, when in fact the bills hadn't been paid in six months and he had subsequently borrowed money from loan shark Rick Neelan - notorious for his large interest rates. His plans to pay off his debts were ruined when a big job fell through and he was forced to cut Seb's hours. The landlord then evicted the pair from Victoria Court and they were forced to sleep on a lilo at the already-crowed No.8. Meeting with his old friend Joe at the Rovers, Gary considered taking another job in the Ukraine - infuriating Sarah who chastised him about even considering the offer after he was feared dead in his previous outing. Drowning her sorrows at the Bistro, Sarah enjoyed flirting with Adam Barlow and took up his offer of returning to No.15 for a nightcap - however, she rejected him and stormed out after he leaned in for a kiss. Outside the flat Adam tried to apologise to Sarah for his actions, and Seb stepped in believing him to be harassing her - which resulted in Seb being punched. When Gary saw Seb's injuries, Sarah insisted that he had been mugged and encouraged Seb to remain quiet about the incident. Seb remained loyal to his boss and planned to tell Gary the truth, although when Gary fired him - after an argument with his mother Abi and Eileen caused a potential client to drop a contract - he agreed to stay quiet about the whole ordeal. : Gary and Seb's feud comes to a head following recent events.]] By March, Gary and Sarah were in a better place with their relationship - and Sarah left a romantic note telling him to meet her in the bath at No.8, after a misunderstanding Seb assumed that the note had been left for him and made his way upstairs to join her. Sarah was left mortified by the incident and informed Gary, who furiously turned up at Seb's eighteenth birthday party at No.11 to demand that he break up with Faye and never look at Sarah again. When Faye accused Gary of upsetting Faye, he exposed the truth to the party - the revelation devastated Faye who called time on their relationship. Meanwhile, Gary became desperate for extra work - with his only hope being that Underworld owner Carla Connor hire him to fix the factory roof. However, Carla had always been against fixing the roof in its entirety - and insisted that Gary only fix the exterior damage a recent fire had caused. Upon finding out that Carla planned to outsource their jobs, the Underworld workers called a strike - believing that nobody would be in the premises for a while, Gary set about sabotaging the factory roof in the dead of night. Unfortunately, workers Sally Metcalfe, Gina Seddon, Izzy, Kirk Sutherland, Paul Foreman and Sean Tully decided to hold their protest within the factory - supported by Gemma Winter and Emma Brooker. As Sally and Gina headed to display their banners on the roof, their weight caused the ceiling to collapse beneath them. : Gary helps to rescue the Underworld roof collapse survivors.]] Along with other residents, Gary set about rescuing the survivors - only retreating when all the workers were accounted for. At first it was believed that only Sally had suffered serious injuries - however, unbeknown to anyone Rana Habeeb had been in the office trying on her wedding dress at the time of the collapse and had been crushed. Knowing that her fiancée was going to die Kate Connor joined her, and Gary was left feeling guilty for the chaos he had caused. : Gary's feud with Rick Neelan ends with him bashing him over the head with a rock.]] Later on in the year, Gary retrieves Sarah's phone from her boss and Michelle's best-friend Carla - which transpires that Gary is responsible for sabotaging the roof at the Underworld Factory, thus causing the death of Alya's sister-in-law Rana Habeeb (Bhavna Limbachia) after she died from the roof collapse. By then, Gary finds himself in debt to Tina's loan shark Rick Neelan (Greg Wood) and is forced to work for him. When Rick later attempts to kill Gary in a bid to tie up loose ends of his loan sharking activities, Gary ends up killing Rick by beating him to death with a rock. He manages to cover-up his involvement in both Rana's death and Rick's murder, but this contributes to his aggressive behaviour that results in Sarah ending their relationship. He soon clashes with Rana's brother Imran (Charlie de Melo) over the circumstances behind his sister's death, and later becomes enemies with his colleague Adam Barlow (Sam Robertson) - particularly as Sarah and Adam end up developing romantic feelings for each other. Gary soon bonds with Michelle and Carla's sister-in-law, Maria (Samia Longchambon), and they form a relationship. This escalates as Maria's ex-boyfriend Ali Neeson (James Burrows), who recently dumped Maria after inadvertently leaving her son Liam in danger, develops a feud with Gary after discovering his status as a loan-shark - with Gary having assumed ownership of Rick's criminal empire after the latter's death. Moreover, Ali's brother Ryan (Ryan Prescott) - whom Gary previously clashed over his broken relationship with Gary - has unwittingly stolen Gary's money from his desk at his shop. Gary later beats up Ryan after the latter is unable to repay him the money back. : Gary attempts to stop Derek's massacre]] Overtime, Gary plans to usurp control of the Underworld Factory and conducts a plan where his client his client Derek Milligan (Craige Els) - who owes Gary money - is summoned to pose as a businessman seeking to rebuild the Underworld Factory. Gary soon blackmails Derek into upholding his scheme to takeover the factory, going as far as to threaten his family should he not comply with his orders. However, when Derek attempts to stand up to Gary and nearly foils his scheme as a result, Gary retaliates by holding him captive until Christmas Eve that year. Because of this, Derek has lost his last-chance of reconciling with his ex-wife and their children. Seeking retribution, Derek steals a gun from Gary's shop and ends up instigating a siege in The Rovers while trying to find Gary. When Gary attempts to call his bluff, Derek fires the gun to prove his intent on killing Gary - unknowingly shooting Michelle's estranged husband, Robert Preston (Tristan Gemmill), in the process. Derek's siege culminates with him and Gary fighting near a roof, whereupon Shona gets shot during the struggle - wherein Gary also gets shot before Derek ends up tumbling below the roof. Gary attempts to bring Derek up to safety, but loses his grip and could only watch as Derek falls to his death. Gary is later rushed to hospital, where he learns that Shona has recovered from her gunshot wound while Robert has died from his injuries. Later on, Izzy met with Derek's wife and found out that he was in debt to a loan shark, and Izzy realised Gary was the loan shark Derek was in debt to. At the Rovers, Izzy agreed with Ali that Gary is a loan shark, and told Gary to swear on Jake's life that he isn't one. Gary then confesses the truth to Maria, who is furious he lied to her twice, and tells him to get out. Memorable Info Born: 19th March 1986 Full Name: Gary Windass Parents: Eddie Windass and Anna Windass Siblings: Faye Windass (Adoptive) Spouse: Children: Jake Windass (2013) Category:Coronation Street Characters. Category:Current characters. Category:Characters first seen in 2008. Category:Coronation Street bad boys. Category:Windasses. Category:Soldiers Category:Builders Category:1986 Births Category:Convicted Criminals. Category:Gymnasium Staff Category:Villains. Category:Career Criminals Category:Murderers